Elizabeth May, O.C., M.P. Your Member of Parliament in Saanich-Gulf Islands Summer 2014 Newsletter — Reflecting on Three Years as your MP It is hard to believe (at least for me!) that it has been three years since I first had the honour to rise in my seat when recognized by the Speaker as “The Honourable Member for Saanich-Gulf Islands.” During the election campaign, back in 2011, I was often asked what I thought I would be able to accomplish as the only Green Member of Parliament. I only made promises I knew I could fulfil – conduct myself respectfully, work hard and ensure I set a standard for accountability. Now that three years have passed, I have to admit that even I am surprised by how much has been possible. I never would have imagined that my colleagues, all the other MPs in Parliament, would have voted me Parliamentarian of the Year in 2012, and Hardest Working MP in 2013. In many ways the Macleans magazine vote for Parliamentarian of the Year is more a tribute to my colleagues than anything else. I have worked very hard to forge friendships across party lines. And I think MPs in other parties wish they were less controlled by their leaders’ offices. The secret ballot in the Macleans poll was Constituency Office a nice way for other MPs to support what I am trying to do. 1 - 9711 Fourth Street Sidney, BC V8L 2Y8 It makes my life in Parliament a lot more pleasant to have friends on all sides of the House. I also Phone: 250-657-2000 believe the health of Canadian democracy is imperilled by the increasing hyper-partisanship of non- or 1-800-667-9188 Fax: 250-657-2004 stop political warfare. Reducing partisanship is a core goal of Greens. Email: [email protected] Improving MP performance: respect and accountability My “zero tolerance for heckling” plan -- to refuse to continue speaking whenever subjected to heckling Hill Office 518 Confederation Building -- has generally been successful. Nearly every time that I have stopped speaking and taken my seat House of Commons due to rude interruptions, the Speaker has stood, called for order, and given me back the floor. It has Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6 worked so well that other Members have tried it from time to time. Certainly, it has been easy to stick Phone: 613-996-1119 to my own commitment never to interrupt others or heckle. However, overall, I have not been able to Fax: 613-996-0850 improve the general conduct and level of respectful discourse in the House. Email: [email protected] In influencing the conduct of others, I have had more success in pressing for greater transparency and accountability. It has also been easy (thanks to my great staff) to have all my receipts scanned and all my expense claims posted on my MP website. I have discovered that I was not the first MP to have Online done so. Former Liberal MP Michelle Simpson also put all her expenses on line. She faced dreadful www.elizabethmaymp.ca attacks, from other parties and from her own caucus. She was ostracized. @ElizabethMay It is likely a great benefit that I was not in any other caucus. My posting of receipts made it hard for facebook.com/ElizabethMayGreenLeader other parties to claim it was impossible. I pressed for the Auditor General to be allowed to do an audit of the House of Commons. My motion was opposed by the Conservatives, but by the next day the Liberals brought forward a motion which received all party support to post only the entertainment and travel expenses of all MPs. While this does not go as far as what I proposed, it is unquestionably the most dramatic change in decades to make MP spending more accountable and transparent. Making life better for individual constituents credit: Craig Cantin This is certainly the most rewarding part of the job of working as your Member of Parliament. Some days we feel we have just saved someone’s life. When we first set up the constituency office, I knew I wanted to organize it on the principle of a street level law clinic. I recruited a very dedicated non-partisan staff. Together we created the job title “Constituent Advocate.” Generally we have 200 open files helping individuals. We have helped reunite dozens of families – children with parents, husbands with wives, parents with children. We have fought off deportation orders, gotten pensions sorted, restored disability payments, and resolved innumerable disputes with various federal government departments. There is always more that we want to do. Not every case is resolved to our satisfaction and sometimes we have to accept that we cannot fix a bad situation. As soon as one case is solved, another two walk in the door. Overall, we are able to From left to right: Gerard Emekoba, Johnson Emekoba, Elizabeth, and Jennifer Lannan. successfully resolve over 80% of the issues where constituents have asked for our A family reunited on Salt Spring Island. help. We are very committed to the motto on the door “Caring, conscientious non- partisan service.” For the second year in a row, I have been voted “Canada’s Hardest-Working MP” in the annual Hill Times Politically Savvy Survey. I also placed third in the “Best Constituency MP”, “Best MP to Work For”, and “Best Public Speaker” categories in this year’s survey. To serve in the House of Commons as both the leader of the Green Party of Canada and as the voice of my constituents is an honour. I am grateful for this recognition for doing what I love. Elizabeth May, O.C., M.P. 1 Printed on 100% Post-Consumer Recycled Paper Reflecting on Three Years as your MP www.elizabethmaymp.ca Progress in the House I have been surprised how often it really matters to be the only MP in the House to take a stand. Many issues move quickly through the House by unanimous consent. Even when I was the only Green Party MP in the House, before Bruce Hyer, MP for Thunder Bay- Superior North joined me as the second Green MP, there have been many times that my refusal to grant consent has made a difference. Given that there are four other parties in the House, it is rare that they are all prepared to force through legislation without adequate study – but it does happen. The worst moment was in June 2013 when, using a procedural trick, the unanimous consent motion was used to force through allowing seismic testing and drilling under the new Sable Island National Park. We have had other losses, on many devastating omnibus bills, but it was particularly hard to have such a loss forced through with the active engagement of opposition MPs with whom I am usually in agreement. In June 2011 I was able to ensure there was a committee review of the proposed Mega-trials Bill. Unfortunately, despite identifying numerous holes in the bill, (even the head of prosecutions for the Department of Justice agreed the bill needed fixing), the bill was pushed through by all the other parties without any amendment. On other occasions, I have worked hard to raise awareness of regressive legislation, such as the omnibus budget bills, and proposed treaties such as the Canada-China Investment Treaty. Arcane and obscure rules By becoming very familiar with even the arcane and obscure rules of Parliamentary procedure, I was able to put forward substantive amendments to every bill going through the House. My efforts made enough of a difference that the Conservatives moved to change the rules and deprive MPs from smaller parties and independents the right to do what I’d been doing. The most lasting and positive of my efforts in the House will be the National Lyme Disease Strategy. It is rare for a Private Members’ Bill to become law. In fact, in the last Parliament less than two percent of Private Members’ Bills got as far as Bill C-442 has so far. Bill C-442 has received strong support from all sides of the House. In fact, my bill received unanimous support at Second Reading. We are not yet through all the hurdles, but I am very grateful to Health Minister Rona Ambrose who has supported the bill publicly. The NDP and Liberals are also supportive, so our only barrier now is time, scheduling the bill before the Health Committee, and then passage through the Senate. credit: Morguefile (Taukast) Please visit my MP website for more information on Lyme disease and Bill C-442. Reading every bill has allowed me to make a significant impact. It has been a shock to realize that other MPs rarely read the legislation at all. On the other hand, since they are all told how to vote, reading bills and deciding for yourself if the legislation is in the national interest and would be supported by your constituents is a potential career-limiting move. Lindsey’s Law Lastly, in the House I have been able to work with other MPs, often Conservatives, to bring in changes to laws and to achieve funding of programmes. Achieving budgetary approval for a new DNA data bank to assist in the search for missing persons was one such success. My commitment to the DNA data bank preceded my election. One day Judy Peterson walked through the doors of our old Green community office on Beacon Avenue to ask for my help. Judy is an inspiration. Twenty years ago, her 14 year old daughter Lindsay went missing and was never seen again.